A SPECIAL winter ‘Blessing’ has returned to WWT Caerlaverock in time for Christmas – with the arrival of a family of seven swans among those who have travelled here from Iceland.
Among the population of more than 100 whooper swans, which travel 800 miles from their summer home to spend the winter in the south of Scotland, is a female known as Blessing who has come back this year with a partner and five cygnets in tow.
Many of the whooper swans at WWT Caerlaverock have rings on their legs to tell them apart when monitoring. Blessing is one of those swans and was first spotted in October this year but has been coming to Caerlaverock regularly for nearly 12 years.
Site manager David Pickett said: “Whooper swans display what is known as ‘site fidelity’, which means they return to the same wintering grounds year on year.
“Blessing was an adult female when she was rung in February 2013, over 11 years ago, meaning she is an old bird: the average lifespan of a whooper swan is nine years, although the oldest on record lived to be 28.
“It’s great news to have her back along with the rest of the whooper swans. The climate crisis causes unpredictable weather patterns which can make it hard for these birds to know when to leave for winter migration and if they do set off, it can increase the chance that they don’t complete the journey because they are knocked off course, are delayed and run out of energy. This problem is going to worsen as climate change does so it’s particularly important that we continue to monitor these birds each year.”
Enjoy the whooper swans at WWT Caerlaverock by going along to the daily Swan Talk every day at 1 pm, except on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
